Despite Duran Duran’s fame as a band from the 1980s, their recent concert documentary Duran Duran: A Hollywood High shows a still-vibrant ensemble performing songs spanning their four-decade career. Duran Duran fans will want to see this movie. For others, it’s interesting to see how the group looks and performs live 41 years after they pioneered the British New Wave movement.
The unique appeal of Duran Duran was in part due to the band’s ability to bridge the gap between punk and new wave, which was seen as a bold move at the time. They also used their music to bring together the disparate fans of both genres, spawning dozens of similar acts on both sides of the Atlantic.
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The movie, directed by Gavin Elder, Vincent Adam Paul, and George Scott, was filmed in March 2022 at The Aster Hotel in Hollywood. The rooftop performance, a first for the band, had 200 to 250 people in attendance. This was the first time Duran performed a rooftop concert, and it was a unique experience for both them and their fans.
“For our first US show in several years, we wanted to do something really special and intimate,” explains keyboardist Nick Rhodes regarding the film’s centerpiece performance. “After considering many options, a rooftop performance quickly became the frontrunner. It was post-pandemic, we had never done anything like that before, and we had just released a new album. Somehow it seemed like a magical doorway to the next part of our journey.”
“Duran Duran has had an enduring relationship with the city of Los Angeles since the first time we came to America,” bassist John Taylor concurred. “We were determined to do something unique to celebrate our four decades together. A rooftop performance in LA with the Capitol Records building across the street and the Hollywood sign looming in the distance sounded perfect and turned out to be an extraordinary night for all of us.”
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With a mix of archival and new footage, the documentary begins with an introduction detailing the band’s history in the City of Angels. In a recent interview, Roger Taylor said being in Los Angeles in 1981 was almost like being in another world because the city is so different from Birmingham, England. His first impression was “paradise.”
The film briefly mentions Andy Taylor, the band’s guitarist off and on from 1980 to 2006, but saves the highest praise for American guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, who played with the band from 1986 to 2001. According to Rhodes, that LA meeting with Cuccurullo in LA was the band’s most important and impactful meeting ever in Los Angeles.
You might think the documentary is one big nostalgia trip, but you’d be wrong. Their setlist includes hits and album tracks from the 1980s to the band’s 2021 album Future Past.
